82 OBSERVATIONS ON THE GRAFTING OF TREES. 



shoots from the trees last grafted. Stocks of different kinds were tried ; 

 some were double-grafted, others obtained from apple-trees which grew 

 from cuttings, and others from the seed of each kind of fruit afterwards 

 inserted on them. I was surprised to find that many of these stocks 

 inherited all the diseases of the parent trees. 



The wood appearing perfect and healthy in many of my last-grafted trees, 

 I flattered myself that I had succeeded ; but my old enemies, the moss 

 and canker, in three years convinced me of my mistake. Some of them, 

 however, trained to a south wall, escaped all their diseases, and seemed 

 (like invalids) to enjoy the benefit of a better climate. I had before 

 frequently observed, that all the old fruits suffered least in warm situa- 

 tions, where the soil was not unfavourable. I tried the effects of laying 

 one kind, but the canker destroyed it at the ground. Indeed I had no 

 ht>pe of success from this method ; as I had observed that several sorts, 

 which had always been propagated from cuttings, were as much diseased 

 as any others. The wood of all the old fruits has long appeared to me 

 to possess less elasticity and hardness, and to feel more soft and spongy 

 under the knife, than that of the new varieties which I have obtained 

 from seed. This defect may, I think, be the immediate cause of the 

 canker and moss, though it is probably itself the effect of old age, and 

 therefore incurable. 



Being at length convinced that all efforts to make grafts from w 7 orn- 

 out trees were ineffectual, I thought it probable that those taken from 

 very young trees raised from seed could not be made to bear fruit. 

 The event here answered my expectation. Cuttings from seedling apple- 

 trees of two years old were inserted on stocks of twenty, and in a bearing 

 state. These have now been grafted nine years ; and though they have 

 been frequently transplanted to check their growth, they have not yet 

 produced a single blossom. I have since grafted some very old trees 

 with cuttings from seedling apple-trees of five years old : their growth 

 has been extremely rapid, and there appears no probability that their 

 time of producing fruit will be accelerated, or that their health will be 

 injured, by the great age of the stocks. A seedling apple-tree usually 

 bears fruit in thirteen or fourteen years ; and I therefore conclude, that 

 I have to wait for a blossom till the trees from which the grafts were 

 taken attain that age ; though I have reason to believe, from the form of 

 their buds, that they will all be extremely productive. Every cutting, 

 therefore, taken from the apple (and probably from every other) tree, 

 will be affected by the state of the parent stock. If that be too young 

 to produce fruit, it will grow with vigour, but will not blossom ; and if 



